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On March 16, 1969, police used tear gas to disperse students blocking traffic near the Stanford Research Institute building in the Industrial Park at the corner of Hanover Street and Page Mill Road. (Image credit: Chuck Painter & Tim D. Lawson)

February 14, 2019

1969: A turbulent time remembered 50 years later

The year 1968 tends to be synonymous with student activism at the nation’s colleges and universities. Certainly that was true at Stanford. But what is also true is that turbulent times didn’t end with the calendar year. The year 1969 was also a year filled with demonstrations, takeovers and sit-ins, as these archival photographs document.
The issues most at stake for students at Stanford 50 years ago were the war in Vietnam, admission and hiring policies, university governance, the draft, ROTC and classified research. Take a look back.

The year had a stormy beginning when, on Jan. 14, 1969, about 40 students organized by the group Students for a Democratic Society – or SDS – disrupted a Board of Trustees meeting at the Faculty Club. The students called on trustees to relinquish university or corporate posts and have open meetings. They demanded that Stanford halt all economic and military operations and projects concerned with Southeast Asia. Later, 29 students were penalized with probation and fines.Image credit: Chuck PainterThere was a diversity of opinion among students on campus in 1969, and sometimes the object of a protest was students themselves. For instance, on Jan. 29, 1969, a rally held by Students for a Democratic Society in Old Union Courtyard was disrupted by 50 opposing students organized by the Young Republicans and Young Americans for Freedom, who heckled their fellow students and waved signs comparing SDS to Hitler.Image credit: Chuck PainterOn Feb. 20, 1969, members of the Black Student Union led a march to the bookstore and the president’s office. In the year prior, the BSU famously “took the mic” from Provost Richard Lyman and issued demands designed to better serve and support African American students, faculty and the wider community. In February 1969, BSU members presented 12 demands to administrators, including requests for more black administrators and faculty members.Image credit: Jose MercadoOn March 16, 1969, police used tear gas to disperse students blocking traffic near the Stanford Research Institute building. SRI was created in 1946 as a nonprofit organization to provide specialized research services. The students were protesting the decision by trustees to sever ties with the institute. Protesters wanted the trustees instead to exercise greater control over the organization. Protesters dispersed after about four hours. Image credit: Chuck Painter & Tim D. LawsonOn April 9, 1969, several hundred April Third Movement (A3M) protesters occupied the Applied Electronics Laboratory, where much of the classified research on campus was done. The protest disrupted operations for nine days. A3M was born at an April 3, 1969, meeting in Dinkelspiel Auditorium, where students formulated demands to end classified and war-related research on campus.Image credit: Chuck PainterOn April 14, 1969, Provost Richard Lyman addressed students in the Main Quad. Lyman shouldered much of the responsibility for responding to student activists, who were challenging the university on many fronts. Lyman has often been credited with a strength and conviction that allowed Stanford to persevere during a turbulent era nationwide, while other colleges and universities faltered. He became president in 1970. Image credit: Chuck PainterOn April 18, 1969, members of the April Third Movement voted to end the occupation of the Applied Electronics Laboratory, where much of the university’s Department of Defense research was centered. Provost Richard Lyman would later write that, over the next few days, the Faculty Senate debated and eventually banned classified research. In the meantime, university administrators looked for a way to dislodge the students without resorting to force. Threatened with suspension, the students agreed to temporarily end the occupation.Image credit: Chuck PainterOn April 18, 1969, student body President Denis Hayes called an unprecedented meeting of the student body. Some 8,000 people attended the gathering in Frost Amphitheater to discuss classified and war-related research. Image credit: Chuck PainterMembers of the April Third Movement meet with President Kenneth Pitzer on April 29, 1969. Pitzer joined Stanford from Rice University, but his tenure lasted only 19 months.Image credit: Chuck PainterStudents held a rally near Encina Hall, home to numerous university administrative offices, on April 30, 1969. Around 1 a.m., after scuffling with other students who opposed their position and were blocking the door to the building, they broke in and occupied the building.Image credit: Chuck PainterOn May 1, 1969, sheriff’s riot police, accompanied by faculty observers, entered Encina Hall at 7:15 a.m. to clear demonstrators who had broken into the administrative nerve center at 1 a.m. Faculty observers reported numerous incidents of students removing files. Payroll records were ransacked. Fourteen students subsequently were suspended and 48 more placed on probation and fined.Image credit: Chuck Painter & Tim D. LawsonOn May 1, 1969, students who had been occupying Encina Hall left the building under threat of arrest. Image credit: Chuck PainterOn Oct. 15, 1969, in the largest political action gathering in the university’s history to date, more than 8,000 people took part in the Vietnam Moratorium, whose objective was an end to the war. Most classes were canceled or rescheduled. In the evening, a crowd gathered in Memorial Church, where Nobel peace laureate Linus Pauling received a standing ovation at his Vietnam Moratorium presentation. Image credit: Chuck Painter